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Thomas Humphrey
Thomas Humphrey was a judge of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. He assumed office in 2015. He left office on March 7, 2022.
He was first appointed to the position on April 29, 2015, by Gov. Paul LePage (R).[1] To read more about judicial selection in Maine, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[2] Humphery received a confidence score of Indeterminate.[3] Click here to read more about this study.
Humphrey retired on March 7, 2022. To learn more about this vacancy, click here.
Biography
Humphrey received a B.S. in accounting from Boston College in 1969. He earned his J.D. from Boston College Law School in 1972.[4][5] Prior to his judicial work, Humphrey was an assistant district attorney for York County and a partner at the law firm Roberts, Shirley & Humphrey.[1]
Appointments
Maine Supreme Court (2015-2022)
Humphrey was first appointed to the Maine Supreme Court in 2015 by Gov. Paul LePage (R).[1]
Maine Superior Court (1998-2015)
Humphrey was first appointed to the Maine Superior Court in 1998 by Gov. Angus King (I). He was reappointed in 2005 by John Baldacci (D).[1]
Maine District Court (1993-1998)
Humphrey was appointed to the Maine District Court in 1993 by Gov. John McKernan (R).[1]
Analsysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[6]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[7]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
Thomas
Humphrey
Maine
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Indeterminate - Judicial Selection Method:
Direct gubernatorial appointment - Key Factors:
- Appointed by a Republican governor
Partisan Profile
Details:
Humphrey was appointed by Gov. Paul LePage (R).
State supreme court judicial selection in Maine
- See also: Judicial selection in Maine
The seven justices of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court are appointed by the governor with confirmation from the Maine State Senate.[8]
Justices serve for seven years after their appointment. To continue to serve on the court, they must be reappointed by the governor and reconfirmed by the Maine State Senate.[8]
Qualifications
State law requires that supreme court justices be "learned in the law."[9]
Chief justice
In Maine, the position of chief justice is a specific seat on the court (similar to the Supreme Court of the United States) rather than a peer-selected leadership position. The chief justice is appointed in the same manner as the other justices on the court.[8]
Vacancies
If a midterm vacancy occurs on the court, the seat is filled as it normally would be if the vacancy occurred at the end of a justice's term. The governor appoints a justice with confirmation by the Maine State Senate. The new appointee serves a seven-year term.[8]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Maine.gov, "Governor LePage Announces Nomination of Associate Justice to Supreme Judicial Court," April 29, 2015
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ Boston College Law School, "Boston College Law School Magazine Fall 1995," accessed July 28, 2021
- ↑ Archive.org, "Boston College Yearbook 1969," accessed July 28, 2021
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Maine," accessed September 15, 2021
- ↑ Maine Legislature, "Title 4: Judiciary, Chapter 1: Supreme Judicial Court - §1. Constitution of the court; administrative responsibilities of the court and the Chief Justice," accessed April 3, 2023
Federal courts:
First Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: District of Maine • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: District of Maine
State courts:
Maine Supreme Judicial Court • Maine Superior Court • Maine Business and Consumer Court • Maine District Courts • Maine Family Division • Maine Juvenile Court • Maine Probate Courts • Maine Small Claims Court • Maine Treatment Court
State resources:
Courts in Maine • Maine judicial elections • Judicial selection in Maine
